Unexpected (9 page)

“Don’t worry about Jamie. She’d come around. I’m sure of it.”

Willow
might be sure of it, but I wasn’t.

“I need another beer,” I said, just to change the subject. I really didn’t, it was just an excuse to get away from the conversation. I’d already had two, my usual limit. My head was fuzzy enough so I’d just hold on to beer number three.

“This way,” Willow said.

I followed her into the kitchen.

Accidentally figuring out where Corey had gone.

My gaze collided with his taking us both by surprise. He had one hand sliding its way up Samantha’s waist. The other was holding
his drink.  Not that I was counting, but Sam was girl number three. Since me. And wasn’t he just with Tara? To his credit, he backed away from her ever so slightly when he saw me; a somewhat apologetic expression crossed his face.

I didn’t fight the urge to roll my eyes. Too little too late.

In the few seconds that he hesitated, his attention directed elsewhere, Sam followed his stare. When her eyes landed on me, she threw a look of disgust my way. Whether it was aimed at me or him, I didn’t know. Didn’t care.

I shrugged in response as
Willow handed me my full cup.

“Hey,
Willow, do you wanna dance?” Grant asked. He seemed to have appeared from nowhere but knowing the poor guy like I did, I was pretty sure he’d been following Willow. Just waiting for the music to change.

She glanced at me.

“Go ahead,” I told her, waving her away.

Grant
gave me a thankful grin as he led her out of the room.

I followed them out of the kitchen at a much slower pace since I had nowhere in particular to go.

“Hey,” Tristan said as he came up beside me. “How did you end up all alone?”

“Jamie went to talk to someone,” I said.
I leaned into to him, so I could be heard over the music
.
“Willow’s dancing with Grant.” His hand ran up my back. Not in a presumptuous way but in the way someone would when they want to draw you in so they could simply hear better.

“Are you having fun?” he asked. H
is eyes were resting on something past my shoulder. I had a hunch it was Corey. I didn’t bother to turn around to find out.

I shrugged. My head was pleasantly fuzzy and that was all I was going to allow it to be. “It’s okay. How about you?”

He grinned. “It’s not so bad.”

“Can I have that?”
Brian asked as he walked past. He was a friend of Tristan’s. He took the cup from my hand before I could reply. “Thanks!” he said as he walked away.

“Do you want me to get you another one?” Tristan wondered.

“No,” I said. “I’m good.” I was actually relieved to have it gone.

Tristan had an oddly curious look on his face. That’s when I realized we were holding hands. Kind of. My hip was leaning against his. I was turned in to him but our hands were
behind our backs. His hand was cupped ever so lightly around mine. And mine? I was shamelessly rubbing my thumb round and round the palm of his hand as my fingers gripped his. For a moment, I was stunned. I realized it must be me that started this little flirtation.

“Come with me!” Jamie demanded as she appeared by my side. She grabbed my arm to pull me away. I moved to go, but not before Tristan gave my hand a tight squeeze. I think I surprised us both by squeezing back.

Jamie still had a grip on my arm as she pulled me down the hallway. I glanced over my shoulder, catching Tristan’s eye. He made a face and shook his head. At Jamie’s interruption, I was sure. I smiled back. She pulled me into Krista’s room.

“
Corey wants to talk to you,” she informed me.

“So?” I asked with a shrug. My brain took a second to catch up. “Why do you know that?”

“Because he just cornered me to ask if I thought you’d talk to him,” she explained. She said it as if I should’ve known that. Or at least been able to guess. “Anyhow, the only reason I’m telling you is to warn you. I didn’t tell him what I thought one way or another.”

I nodded slowly. “What does he want?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea. Like I said, I just wanted to let you know. Personally, I think he blew his chance with you but…it’s obviously your call.”

“Okay, thanks for the warning.” I turned to go. I’d been worried she wanted to talk to me about Tristan. But with our hands behind our back, she probably hadn’t seen anything. And really, there wasn’t much to see.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “I love this song! Let’s go!” she said as she flung the door open.

The music was floating up from downstairs. I followed her but before I reached the staircase, someone’s hand gripped my elbow. I turned, smiling, because I’d thought…I’d hoped, it was Tristan.

It wasn’t.

“Where are you running off to?”
Corey asked. His blue eyes slid over me. I smirked because, thanks to my boots, we were more or less the same height. At the same time, I tried not to be annoyed that his messy brown hair looked obnoxiously, perfectly styled.

“Well, I was going to go dance,” I said as I pointed to the staircase.

Jamie had paused halfway down, an annoyed look on her face. She raised her eyebrows, wondering if she should wait or if she could go dance to her song. I waved her off and she turned, flouncing down the stairs.

“You can dance later,”
Corey said as he pulled me back.

He placed his hands on my waist, pushing me back into the hallway until my butt was parked up against the wall.
He leaned in, sliding his arms around my middle.

“I miss you,” he muttered.

I laughed at that. “Yeah, it sure looked like it.”

He ignored that as he pulled me closer. His arms around me felt way too familiar. It would’ve been so easy to just let him pull me
in. Physically and emotionally. But I’d worked too hard at trying to get over him to let one comforting gesture undo weeks of diligent forgetting on my part.

When his lips started to skim their way up my neck, I shrugged him off and ducked out of his arms. I needed my resolve to be strong enough to withhold one hasty moment that could cause everything to come crashing down. I wasn’t going to be careless enough to just hand my heart back to
Corey. I didn’t get very far because he stepped in front of me, blocking me.

“Seriously Corey? You just had your lips on someone else, like twenty minutes ago,” I grumbled.

“No, I didn’t,” he argued. “I saw
you
and from then on, you’ve been all I could think about.”

All he could think about? Or simply thinking about me because he’d wrecked his chance with Sam
for the night? That was my guess.

I needed to get away. My eyes scanned the crowd, looking for
Willow since Jamie wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Instead, they found Tristan. He glanced at me a second after my gaze landed on him. He frowned when he saw me, making me wonder just what kind of expression I was wearing. I shot him what I hoped he understood was a pleading look as Corey gently cornered me again. The familiarity of his nearness came crashing down on me, pressing in, slowly shattering my resolve.

“Come on, Britta. I miss you.”

“You do not,” I said with a blatant eye roll.

“Yes,” he insisted
. He closed the little bit of space between us so his mouth was next to my ear. “I do. I miss how you cover your mouth when you think you laugh too hard. How you chew on your pen when you’re studying. The way you twirl your hair when you’re day dreaming. I miss how you always close your eyes when you take your last sip of cappuccino, savoring it like it’s the last drop of caffeine on earth.”

“You’re making that up. I don’t do that,” I whispered.

I shook my head and tried to back away. His breath was hot, familiar next to my ear.

“Yeah, baby, you do. It’s adorable. What I miss most? I miss the way you moan into my mouth when I kiss you.”

A slow burn, like molten lava coursing through my veins took over, singeing my last little thread of common sense. When Corey’s hands moved from around my waist into a firm grip on each hip, I was afraid I wasn’t going to be going anywhere. My body tensed at the thought.

His presence was sucking me in, pulling me under
. In no time at all I was drowning in my own uncertainty and indecision.

“Wh
at’s wrong?” Corey asked. I was grateful he had the decency to sense my hesitation.

“Tristan,” I managed to get out in a slightly strangled tone.

“Hey, Jamie was wondering if you’re ready to go,” Tristan easily lied as he finally appeared beside me.

“You’re
not
leaving?” Corey asked. His tone was aggravated and he didn’t bother to glance at Tristan.

I nodded, sidestepping him and fin
ding myself clinging to Tristan. To his credit, he just slid an arm around me as if this wasn’t something entirely out of the ordinary. He started to swing me around, to head toward the door when Corey latched onto my arm.

“Come on, Britta,” he pleaded, his eyes never leaving mine. “Don’t go yet. I can give you a ride. Or if you just want to get out of here, we can go somewhere else.”

A ride home was the least of my concerns. Going somewhere else would be stupid for sure. But I hesitated as that magnetic pull Corey had always had started to drag me back in. Like the pull the moon has on the tides. He sensed my hesitation and latched onto it.

“Please?” he asked. His hand slid up my arm, around my shoulder. He subtly tried to nudge me away from Tristan.

Tristan’s grip remained neutral. He wasn’t going to drag me away, but he wasn’t just going to hand me over, either.

I realized I was holding onto Trista
n like he was my life preserver. The only thing keeping me from being swept away. When my grip on him tightened ever so slightly, he finally made a move to pull me from Corey.

“Hey, Britta, why don’t we go talk to Jamie for a second?” he suggested. “You can decide if you want to catch a ride with her or
Corey.” An irrelevant point, obviously, since we’d driven my car.

“Come on, man. Jamie can’t wait
a few more minutes?” Corey asked. He was clearly aggravated.

Tristan shrugged. “You know how bossy my sister is.”

As we moved away, I could feel Corey following behind us. Tristan, obviously not having the same built in Corey-radar that I did, started to let his arm slide away.

I moved closer to him. “Could you just…”

“What?” he asked giving me an inquisitive look. “Hold on to you?”

I nodded, sliding my arm around his waist.

“Sure,” he said with a grin. “Not a problem.”

He pulled me through the clusters of people. I realized more must’ve arrived because the house was filling up. When Tristan led me outside, I didn’t hesitate, despite the cold.

“Did I do the right thing?” he asked, obviously concerned. “I mean, I thought that’s what you’ve been wanting…to get back together with Corey. But the look on your face, you just looked panicked.”

I shivered against the cold and Tristan put his arms around me. I little sigh slipped out. “You did the right thing. Thanks.”

“Good,” he said. He smiled down at me. Despite the boots I was wearing, he had to tilt his head. “We can go back in. There just wasn’t any privacy in there.”

“I don’t want to go back in,” I said.

“I’m ready to go whenever you can get Jamie out of here,” Tristan replied.

I pulled out my phone to text her. It seemed easier than going back inside. I hoped she was ready to go.
But I doubted it.

Tristan hoisted himself onto the low deck railing, waiting patiently.

I glanced up when the door opened.

“
Corey.” My voice clearly showed my irritation.

Without really meaning to, I
stepped back. I found myself standing between Tristan’s knees, pressed up lightly against him.

Corey
took in the sight of us and something flickered across his face. His expression turned dark and I was surprised to feel Tristan’s arm loop around my waist. It felt oddly comforting. I placed my hand over his to let him know it was okay. More than okay. I needed this. Needed him to anchor me to my resolve.

“This is why you wouldn’t talk to me?” he demanded. His eyebrows shot
up in question. The shock was evident in his voice. “You’ve got to be joking.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Tristan. He raised his
eyebrows, almost imperceptibly. Again wondering if he was doing the right thing. I leaned a little tighter into him and his grip became more firm.

“Whatever,”
Corey said. His voice almost sounded disgusted. His eyes raked over the both of us then landed on mine. His gaze was cutting and he sighed. I waited, thinking he was going to toss something snide our way. He just shrugged and muttered, “My loss,” before heading back inside.